I have been playing Shadow of War and enjoying it. I'm in Act 2 going around converting orcs into my army and taking over fortresses. Getting orcs, training them, and pitting them against others makes me feel a bit like I'm playing Middle Earth Pokemon.

Been jumping between Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1 and Samurai Showdown V. Nobody is ever online for Samurai Showdown V Special but it is a good game. Neptunia has simple, repetitive, yet fun combat but I don't care for the story or characters and I sort of regret getting it.

P4 Golden. Chronotrigger when I tire. (It's on the Vita so it counts I guess.)

Having a grand ol time.

I might have a go at Tales of Vesperia after I'm done but I have a feeling I'm gonna waste away playing Exodus for a week when it comes out. Something mind-numbingly simple after more challenging games.

Been jumping between Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1 and Samurai Showdown V. Nobody is ever online for Samurai Showdown V Special but it is a good game. Neptunia has simple, repetitive, yet fun combat but I don't care for the story or characters and I sort of regret getting it.

I played through all three of the main Neptunia games in college because I had a lot of time when my Vita was the only available system and there aren't nearly as many good Vita games as there was time I had to use it. So I can tell you that Rebirth 2 and 3 are exactly the same game even more inane plots, and also that spinoff games (aside from the actually approaching decent tactics one) are even worse. That series has a loud fanbase that insists it's good and I just don't understand what any of them are seeing.

Anyway, I'm playing The Sly Cooper Collection. I got curious about PS Now since it had a free trial, and it actually works remarkably well. Probably going to keep it once the trial's up and use it to work through a bunch of other older games I missed.

Been jumping between Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1 and Samurai Showdown V. Nobody is ever online for Samurai Showdown V Special but it is a good game. Neptunia has simple, repetitive, yet fun combat but I don't care for the story or characters and I sort of regret getting it.

I played through all three of the main Neptunia games in college because I had a lot of time when my Vita was the only available system and there aren't nearly as many good Vita games as there was time I had to use it. So I can tell you that Rebirth 2 and 3 are exactly the same game even more inane plots, and also that spinoff games (aside from the actually approaching decent tactics one) are even worse. That series has a loud fanbase that insists it's good and I just don't understand what any of them are seeing.

Anyway, I'm playing The Sly Cooper Collection. I got curious about PS Now since it had a free trial, and it actually works remarkably well. Probably going to keep it once the trial's up and use it to work through a bunch of other older games I missed.

Yeah, I figured that out the hard way, I'm in the midst of the second one and it's the worst way to do a sequel. I hoped it would improve but it is stagnant and actually regressed in terms of story and characters. Definitely won't touch the third, but I am probably going to work through that tactics one.

There is a fleeting appeal to the series, there's some charm and the makings of a decent game buried underneath layers of cringe and mediocrity.

PS Now is great if you have good wifi. Too bad they dropped Vita support.

Honestly, if there's ever been an argument for "lazy" game development, it's that series. I'm sure you've noticed that most of the enemies and maps in HN2 are ripped from the first game without even minor modifications, but they do that again in the third one, and that's on top of the fact they use every map like 5 times per game anyway. They're as close as you can possibly get to just releasing the same game three times with a slightly different story. And those stories are crap.

But yeah, the game they're repeatedly releasing is at least halfway competent. It's not like I had to be playing Vita games or even that there was literally nothing else on the system. There were worse games I could've played and less interesting things I could've done with my time, and parts of them were kind of enjoyable. But there's a rabid fanbase insisting that they're legitimately good games (they were among the highest rated on Steam for a while), and I just can't see any argument for them being more than alright that doesn't involve the word "waifu." And I want to be naive and believe that there aren't that many people willing to completely ignore fundamental flaws in a game just because it has cute anime girls.

As for PS Now, I'm playing on my desktop, which has an ethernet connection. I'm still getting the odd hiccup, and the there's enough input lag to make anything timing dependent a total crapshoot, but otherwise you'd never guess it wasn't running locally.

Wow, that really is lazy to use the first game's content well into the third. Is the waifu thing real or a meme, by the way? I literally can't tell. I know people like anime girls but do they actually obsess over particular ones? I guess that could explain how these lazy games are popular. I think I'd be more forgiving if the story didn't seem like I skipped a game or is a reboot...I can't follow it one bit.

I see, that setup probably makes for a good experience for PS Now. My connection was too bad, I could only play turn-based games and the like, really. Did they ever fix the pricing issues people complained of?

Seems real to me. I haven't gone and interviewed anyone about it, but there's gotta me something there for people to keep supporting the series, right? There's something like 10 games now, so that'd be an expensive meme.

Yeah, the weird quasi-rental thing they did initially seems to be gone. It's $20 for a month, but that drops down to $100 for a year, and there aren't any restrictions on usage that I've seen. So it's in line with other media streaming services at the annual level, which is pretty surprising considering how much more demanding it is to stream games.

I tried VVVVVV again, and I remembered why I didn't like it. Trial and error gameplay and bad art are the biggest problems. The character's abilities seem just barely adequate for the challenges and it isn't interesting, no variety. What's with the enemy and hazard design, too? Some words saying "yes" going up and down? Okay...? Didn't get far.

Dabbling in Spiderman from last year. It took far too many lessons from the Ubisoft school of open world, and superheroes don't do anything for me to begin with, but I'm somehow still enjoying it. Also just got the PS4 remake of Trails of Cold Steel, which I'll probably start when I get back.

Everybody's Golf. good as hell. addictive. very positive and encouraging and happy. Character creator does not restrict customization options (clothing, accessories, makeup) based on gender. good stuff

The first 3 DmC games didn't quite click with me, but 4 has modern enough controls that I haven't felt like I'm fighting with them so far. Hopefully I'll see that one out, and the others will probably go on the list of things I should watch LPs of. Seem like they're in the same boat as the entire Metal Gear Solid series I'll get a lot more enjoyment out of watching someone else play them than trying to do so myself.

Spiderman's novelty wore off almost immediately after I posted that, and if you don't care about the lore, there's not much left afterwards besides Open World Game™ #77,365,428. And it's got some of the least interesting and most contrived Open World Game™ tasks I've seen in a while. Didn't stick with it.

The Cold Steel port is great so far, though. The extra content versus the Vita original is fairly minor, but the framerate and load time improvements are immediately noticeable. I loved it the first time around, and so far there's no reason to think that'll change.

Dabbling in Spiderman from last year. It took far too many lessons from the Ubisoft school of open world, and superheroes don't do anything for me to begin with, but I'm somehow still enjoying it. Also just got the PS4 remake of Trails of Cold Steel, which I'll probably start when I get back.